Welcome to ScubaBoard, an online scuba diving forum community where you can join over 205,000 divers diving from around the world. If the topic is related to scuba diving, this is the place to find divers talking about it. To gain full access to ScubaBoard (and make this large box go away) you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

Participate in over 500 dive topic forums and browse from over 5,500,000 posts.

Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.

Post your own photos or view from well over 100,000 user submitted images.

All this and much more is available to you absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

NEW for 2014 Access SBlogbook for members. It allows you to directly upload data from your dive computer, validate your logs digitally, link your dives to photos, videos, dive centers (9,000 on file), fishes (14,000 on file) and much more.

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact the ScubaBoard Support Team.

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

No, I don't use an STA -- I use a DSS wing. I had to move my tank much higher on my back. My dear class and practice buddy figured that out, after watching me struggle.

Come with me and Peter to the Philippines this fall!
A journal of my open water class (from 2005) can be read here.
Okay, you've heard all our opinions. Want to know what the science is? http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/
Lake Washington diving: "And I ask myself, 'Why am I here, and is that another 25 cents I just exhaled?"

60+ Y/O shoulders just don't want to reach back and get the knob on a single tank. My solution was to release my BP waist strap as I reach up and grab a hand full of hoses close to the 1st stage. A good pull up and over on the hoses and the valve is easy to reach. I don't use a STA so my single tank is about as close as it can get. But I don't have any problem hitting my head. The 60+ Y/O neck bones don't bend far enough back any more. Just one more advantage of maturity.

It's actually possible to position a single tank so you can reach the valve. I didn't believe it until we pulled it off (turning on your valve is required for a Fundies rec pass). I had to move the tank up a WHOLE lot further than I was accustomed to having it.

It can be done with the tank down low too. A few weeks ago I forgot to turn my tank on while using a double hose regulator, which for ease of breathing really need to be mounted low. I caught my mistake during my predive checks, but I didn't want to strip everything off again, and since I was diving solo I didn't have a buddy available to do it for me, so I decided this would be a great time to practice my valve skills. With a good hard tug from my left hand on the bottom of the tank and a little contortion of my right arm I was able to turn it all the way on. Not something I'd care to do while struggling to breathe underwater, but I'm sure adrenaline would help get things done.

1- Cough up a good mucousy blob of flem, the more sound effects the better, and rub it around the inside of your mask and (when boat diving), leave it there until you jump in. Then rinse your mask once you're in the water. .

I used to use spit when I was a kid, but my spit, at least, is only fair. Certain kinds of seaweed works better than spit, and the commercial defog stuff works real well. I've heard that fabric softener works well, too.

In Roatan our DM used a squeeze bottle full of blue liquid stuff that worked perfectly, and when Katy asked him what it was he said it was just powdered laundry soap mixed with water.

It's actually possible to position a single tank so you can reach the valve. I didn't believe it until we pulled it off (turning on your valve is required for a Fundies rec pass). I had to move the tank up a WHOLE lot further than I was accustomed to having it.

After thinking about it for a while I realized that the kind of regulator you have might affect this. On our regs (AL Titan), the first stage barrel is in-line with the valve and yoke assembly, whereas other reg first stages I've seen turn down at 90 degrees and would seem to make more room for your head.

Another good tip for anybody missing a buckle -- a ziptie pulled around 2" webbing until the webbing just begins to curl will keep a canister light on

Oh -- and my singles reg IS an AL Titan, and used to be yoke.

Come with me and Peter to the Philippines this fall!
A journal of my open water class (from 2005) can be read here.
Okay, you've heard all our opinions. Want to know what the science is? http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/
Lake Washington diving: "And I ask myself, 'Why am I here, and is that another 25 cents I just exhaled?"

Holding your depth while unstowing, rigging, and deploying a SMB.
... look at the particulate matter in the water to maintain your depth while rigging your SMB to deploy it , it gives you immediate and direct feedback on if your rising or dropping in the water column ... you can look at rigging it in your peripheral vision and only after getting it ready to go do you need to look at it and check over you to see if it's clear

Only if the water column has no up and down to it; Molokini's backside "wall" often has ocean swells impacting against it, so even pretty far away the water column is also moving up and down. Fringe reefs also create up and down motion when swells pass overhead.